There is a well established need for physical security for the interiors of pickup truck beds, which are otherwise completely exposed. Cloth or canvas covers which extend the length of the truck bed and are attached to the upper edge of the sides of the truck bed, such as by snaps or the like, are well known. However, such covers are basically for the purpose of appearance only, and do not provide any physical security, as they may be readily removed and/or cut. Solid truck bed covers which are secured to the truck sides provide a certain amount of protection, particularly if they are made of wood or metal, but they are typically cumbersome to handle, and must be stored away from the truck itself when not in use as a cover.
In order to provide the desired physical security, but also permit storage of the cover within the truck bed itself, the retractable truck bed cover was developed. Typically, such covers comprise a plurality of adjoining slats which are secured to each other in some fashion to provide a longitudinally flexible structure. An example of such a structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,848, issued on Sept. 16, 1986 to Romano. However, known retractable truck bed covers, including the one shown in the '848 patent, have several disadvantages. In particular, the mechanism for retracting the cover, which typically includes a drum with springs or other drive mechanisms, is complicated, expensive, and is not particularly reliable in operation.
Thus, there is a need for a simpler and more reliable mechanism to move the cover into a retracted position. Further, there is a need for some adjustability in the width of the truck bed cover between different trucks so that truck beds of slightly different width may be readily accommodated with one cover. Still further, there is a need for a simpler and more reliable slat design, to make the interconnection between adjacent slats sufficiently strong but with fewer parts and less expensive.